Here’s something that I have found most humans have in common: at some point, we have tried to cut a deal with God. We’ve missed the curfew set by mom and dad, and we’re coming home way late, so we try this: “God, if you will just let them be asleep when I get home, I promise I will go to church.” Maybe it’s that formula, “God, If you will, I will. . .”  Or, maybe it’s the “God, if will, I won’t or I’ll stop. . . “ Even atheists I have known, when at the end of their rope, will throw up a “To Whom It May Concern, just in case there’s anybody out there, I could sure use some help here.”

But here’s something else I know. We rarely keep our end of the bargain. If the parents are asleep, what do we say? “Yeah, what great luck—they were in bed when i finally got home!” Now, for those of us who tried to bargain, negotiate, or cut a deal with God, that process shows that we’ve got a lot of faith rattling around in us. For example, the only way that kind of offer from us makes sense is if you believe God exists. And more than that, you believe that he knows you exist, and that he knows your circumstances, and, here’s the kicker, that he gives a rip. You also believe something else—that you have something God wants. You’re trying for a win-win situation, aren’t ya? You and God each getting something you want.

But, as you ponder Christianity, we have to come face to face with this truth—God doesn’t really want anything from us. Instead, he wants something for us. And in Christian parlance, what we’re talking about here is grace. Chances are you’ve experienced pure grace somewhere in your life. Someone pays for your meal at the restaurant, or the car in front of you pays for you at the toll plaza. They’re not paying you back.They did it just because they wanted to. Grace—undeserved favor or unmerited favor. And when grace is handed out, the cost is paid, and the credit goes to, the person dispensing it. We don’t think how awesome we are when someone pays for our meal, but how awesome they are for having paid for us. And it wasn’t something you earned or deserved. It is handed out just because they wanted to. Grace is like getting something you don’t really deserve. It’s the flip side to mercy, which is not getting something you do deserve.

We see in a passage from the book of Ephesians this idea of God’s grace explained by the Apostle Paul. Here are the essential portions in the 2nd chapter, written to a group of Christians in the city of Ephesus

Eph. 2:1-9 - As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. . . It is by grace you have been saved. .. through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”

So, we who are Christians once were dead, or separated from God, because of our sin. But, good news for us, God has enough mercy that if he used all he wanted to, he’d still have more left over. He’s rich in mercy! And the reason he has so much mercy is that he has this incredible love for you and me. I know a lot of people who think God just sits around being mad at us, not realizing that God is madly in love with us. And this is why we don’t have to bargain with God. He already loves us and is wanting to shower us with something good—just because he wants to. What he wants for us is to make us alive, to restore that relationship with him that our sin broke. And his mechanism for this is Jesus Christ. God did it all for us through Christ, through that cross thing.

And we get this grace, not by doing something, not by earning it, not by bargaining for it, but through faith. Now, we’ve already discovered that faith is simply hearing what God says and believing that it is true and that God will do exactly what he says he will. So, our part of receiving God’s grace is as simple as accepting the gift someone gave us by paying for our toll. “Hey, I believe someone paid for my toll. I’ll accept that gift and keep on driving. Thanks a ton, whoever you are!!”

Now, the practical part of all this for us is revolves around how we determine we end up in a good place with God. Is it what Paul just said—grace, a gift of God we didn’t deserve, through faith. Or, is somehow our behavior rolled into this equation? And here’s what I’ve found. Most people have concluded that our behavior it tied into it somehow. Maybe we think we’ve got to keep the 10 Commandments or follow the guidelines laid down by Jesus. We’re not sure where we got this idea, but we think it’s in the bible somewhere.

Here’s the problem—the bible is the last place we should look to try to find a list of behaviors we can keep to be on good terms with God. That list isn’t there. From front to back, what the bible proclaims is that if our behavior is involved, we are doomed, doomed, and—have I mentioned this before?—doomed!  The 10 Commandments were given to God’s people AFTER they had a good relationship with Him, not BEFORE. And Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament had everyone muttering, “Man, if what Jesus is saying is true, there’s no hope for any of us. No way we can behave our way to a good place with God.” Yeah, they were right.

But the reality is that every religion out there, except Christianity, demands we keep some list of rule and regulations and behaviors to get into a relationship with God. Only Christianity offers that relationship as a free gift. The simple truth is that all of the "to-do’s" we have as Christians are given to us after we have a good relationship with God. And we learn that even accomplishing the “to do’s” is empowered by God himself, through another gift, that of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit encourages us and empowers us to grow up and act more and more like God would. You know why genuine Christians forgive, or give, or serve, or are kind, or put others first? Because God first forgave us, and gave to us, and served us, and was kind to us, and put us first. And his Spirit given to us loves to forgive, give, serve, be kind, and put others first. And he encourages and empowers followers of Christ to do the same.

See, even when Christians end up doing the right things, it’s all wrapped up in God’s gift of grace to us in Jesus and through His Spirit.  God just says, “Quit already with trying to be good enough. Quit trying to bargain. Just accept the gift I’m handing out. It’s grace from me to you, just because. And it’s yours for the taking—just believe it.”

Check out this message and other messages in the series here!

We all probably did a few things as kids we knew were wrong. Taking that cookie we weren’t supposed to, biting or pushing someone who grabbed that toy from us, smearing lipstick all over the bathroom and failing to admit it without a little coercion, slipping that piece of candy into our pockets when no one was looking.  In the grand scheme of things, more misdemeanors than felonies. Still, when caught, we had to apologize. 

Here’s what most of us found out: growing up, that bad stuff we did got bigger and more serious. Along with it came something else:  guilt and shame. Maybe there’s a night, or a weekend, or those college years, or that thing with the money, or that other thing with the boss, or that first marriage that we wish we could just go back and live over or erase somehow. We do all kinds of things to wash it away, but all we have to do is hear that song, be reminded of that name, drive down that street and BOOM, it all comes flooding back. 

And there’s this sense that we owe something. We owed it to them to have been better parents, better husbands, better wives, better friends. We should never have talked to our daughter that way or said that to our son. We owed it to them to have had more patience or more character. If there was just a way to pay it back somehow, maybe that shadow or cloud that follows us around would be gone.  We’ve all wondered whether there is a way to make that happen.

Now, every faith system, every religion offers a so-called solution for how to deal with our past, our shame, our guilt, how to move forward. Normally, it’s a list of things to do to make it all go away, to wipe the slate clean. But in all history, only one person stepped up and said, “I don’t have a solution you need to implement. I am the solution.” John the Baptist called him “the lamb that God sent to take away the sin of the world.” Not just the sin of Jews, but of Romans, and Greeks, and, yes, Americans. And me and you. That person John was referring to was Jesus. Now, the culture John the Baptist was talking to was familiar with sacrificial lambs, animals whose blood was shed to atone for or pay for the sins of people. But, these were not dumb people. They knew the blood of an animal was not worth that of a person, but they knew that sin had to be paid for by the death of something. They were just glad God allowed them to kill an animal rather than requiring the lives of people. So, animals did the trick temporarily, but there was one coming who would take away the sin permanently.

And Jesus, during his ministry, left clues that there was something to what John the Baptist had said. For example, on his last Passover with his disciples, Jesus shakes up their world. “Hey, you guys, from now on, no longer celebrate Passover as that moment when God delivered the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt through the blood of a lamb smeared on doorposts. From now on, let’s do this.  Let’s remember me.” Man, this is wild stuff. It’d be like me telling everyone that Christmas is going to be the time we celebrate my birthday every year. Somehow, I think the church would shrink dramatically the next Sunday.

But that night Jesus is arrested. He is put through a mock trial and crucified, and he bleeds out. And any guy who claims he is the lamb that God sent take away the sin of the world is either crazy, or he’s lying, or we might just have to pay attention. Because, look, we’ve done everything we know how to do to erase our past, to make up for those things, to make it all go away. And we know it hasn’t worked, any more than a serial killer who becomes a really nice inmate. It doesn’t matter how good you act on death row, none of that makes up for the slaughter of innocent victims back there in your past. So, it is possible that there really was someone who could take away our guilt, our shame, our mistakes?

Well, the Apostle Paul—you remember him, right?  The Jew of Jews who made it his life’s goal to rid the world of Christians? Yeah, until the resurrected Jesus showed up and confronted him. Paul then became a Christian and planted more churches than anyone. Paul writes a letter to one of those churches, and he kinda spells out what John the Baptist and Jesus had alluded to. Paul says in Colossians, chapter 2, that Jesus forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness that condemned us. So, the reason we feel like we owe people is because we do. We owe not only them, but God himself.

So, if you’re sick and tired of trying to make things right, sick and tired of the guilt and shame and memories you can’t erase, maybe trusting that Jesus did what he said he would do once we declare him our savior and Lord—to pick those up and carry them away, erasing our debt to God completely.  Not because we’re so wonderful, but because he is.